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We don't know why the feds just raided the 34th Ward office of Ald. Carrie Austin. But we know lots about Austin, who's been a member of the City Council for 25 years. Shall we go over some of that history? /1 wbez.org/shows/wbez-new…
It could prove ironic Austin was one of the aldermen who expressed deep dismay at then-colleague Danny Solis when it was revealed earlier this year that he wore a wire on Ed Burke. "You just don't do that," Austin said, shaking her head /2 news.wttw.com/2019/01/23/som…
Austin also was an unabashed defender of nepotism after I wrote this @Suntimes column about her hiring son Kenny as 34th Ward Streets and San ward sup. Problem was Kenny did not even have a valid driver's license - a requirement for the job 3/ chicago.suntimes.com/2017/10/6/1834…
Never fear - Ald. Austin paid the child support her son owed. And she said my column about his gig in her office had been "vicious" /4 chicago.suntimes.com/2017/10/10/183…
She gave one of the most stirring and impassioned defenses of nepotism that City Hall has seen since the days of Richard J Daley. Again, this was in 2017 - when she was one of Rahm's key City Council allies /5 
Kenny Austin, BTW, needed that position in mom's office bc he had lost another city job - after getting caught by @ChicagoOIG Joe Ferguson. But Ald. Austin said Kenny had never hurt anybody /6 chicago.suntimes.com/2016/8/30/1843…
For his troubles, Ferguson was at the receiving end of what @fspielman of the @Suntimes called a 'profanity-laced tirade' by Ald. Austin /7
That all was around the same time that a grandson of Ald. Carrie Austin got into much more serious trouble far from Chicago City Hall or her South Side ward ... /8 chicago.cbslocal.com/2017/02/20/ald…
More recently and closer to home, an investigation by @WBEZ's @claudiamorell and @thedailylinechi found Ald. Austin had the lowest attendance rate of any alderman during the last 4-year term. (She easily won another term in Feb. anyway) /9 wbez.org/shows/wbez-new…
As ever, Ald. Austin had a pithy explanation for her low attendance: "I don't really have to show up" /10
Even before today's raid, Austin's clout had diminished recently. She backed Toni Preckwinkle for mayor - yet later promised to be as loyal to new Mayor Lightfoot as she was to Rahm and Richard M. Daley, who appointed her in '94 /12 chicago.suntimes.com/news/2019/5/1/…
Spurning that promise of fealty, Lightfoot ousted Austin in favor of Ald. Pat Dowell as new Budget head, heralding this and other changes in the committee chairmanships as a victory of reform over the old guard in the City Council /13 news.wttw.com/2019/05/17/chi…
As @ProPublicaIL's @mickeyd1971 points out here, losing the Budget Committee chairmanship was a significant blow to Austin's clout, striking at her ability to reward allies with patronage - the grease of any cog in the political machine /14
The raid could lead to the end of Austin's political career, of course. But if her history is any indicator, she's as unlikely as Burke to capitulate to the feds or otherwise cooperate with them. And if she fights, you can expect she would not do so quietly ... /15
